UKCCSRC Knowledge Exchange Conference 2025 – Plenary 1 – UKCCSRC & UK CCS – 2005-2015 (ECR Meeting Fund)

Adewole Oluwatosin (Cranfield University) share their takeaways from “Plenary 1 – UKCCSRC & UK CCS – 2005-2015” at the UKCCSRC Knowledge Exchange Conference 2025

The Formative Years
The period 2005 to 2015 was foundational for carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the UK. By the end of it, many of the structures, aspirations and challenges that still shape UK CCS were in place.

Plenary 1 brought together many of the people who were there at the beginning to reflect on what worked, what didn’t and what lessons might carry forward. Here are the key developments and themes from that decade.

1. Setting up research community & early coordination
The UK CCS research ecosystem started in the mid-2000s. One early initiative was the UK CCS Consortium (2005-2009). Later this morphed into what was called the UK CCS Community Network (2009-2014), and ultimately evolved into the UKCCSRC (UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre). UKCCSRC was established with core funding (for example, the EPSRC) to coordinate deep foundational research on capture, transport, storage, policy, regulation and public perception. This helped avoid duplication, built capacity (especially among early career researchers) and created a national focal point for UK academia to engage with government and industry.

2. Policy & legislative milestones
In 2008, the UK passed the Climate Change Act, committing to binding carbon emissions reductions and setting a framework that raised the stakes for CCS as an option for mitigating emissions. The Energy Act 2010 put legal powers in place for funding CCS demonstration projects, regulatory oversight, etc. It also defined the government’s ability to support this technology through subsidies, levies and reporting requirements.

3. Commercial-scale demonstration programme & projects
Perhaps one of the most significant efforts in this period was the UK CCS Commercialisation Programme, run by DECC (Department of Energy & Climate Change). Its goal was to demonstrate CCS at large scale in power generation and industrial emissions sources. It aimed to overcome barriers of cost, risk and public acceptance.

Several high profile projects were tied up with this: White Rose (near Drax), Peterhead, Eston Grange (or Teesside Low Carbon), etc. These proposals often included capturing ~90% of CO2 emissions, transporting them offshore, storing them in geological formations under the North Sea.

However, there were serious commercial, political and cost-risk challenges. In particular, the government’s first competition for a UK commercial CCS demonstration was launched (around 2007), but ultimately cancelled in 2015. The National Audit Office concluded that the competition had been under planned in terms of risk, cost and certainty of delivery.

4. Research, Cost Reduction & Learning
Throughout this decade, UKCCSRC and its predecessors supported extensive work on the technical challenges: capture technologies (post-combustion, oxy-combustion, etc.), transport of CO2 (pipelines, offshore), and geological storage (site characterisation, monitoring, safety).

Also, work on policy, regulatory frameworks, public acceptance, and liability, and economic modelling was increasing. It became clear that technology alone would not suffice: institutions, regulatory certainty, funding models and public trust would need just as much attention.

5. Challenges, Setbacks & Ends
The cancellation of the UTC (UK’s first demonstration competition) in 2015 was one of the major setbacks: promised funding withdrawn, projects halted despite approvals or engineering design studies already performed.

Cost predictions for CCS remained high, and uncertainties about whether electricity consumers or taxpayers should bear those costs remained a central issue. Also, negotiating the risk with private sector partners, ensuring long-term liability and permitting for geological storage and transport were non-trivial barriers.

Reflections & Lessons for Today
From the 2005-2015 decade, several enduring lessons emerge:

• Vision needs policy stability and legal framework. Legislation like the Climate Change Act and Energy Act provided needed direction, but inconsistent support (especially around funding) undermined execution.
• Early, coordinated research and community building matters. The UKCCSRC and its forerunners helped build capacity and shared knowledge; this infrastructure is essential.
• Commercial risks must be addressed explicitly. The failure of some demonstration projects didn’t stem from technical issues alone but often from funding, risk allocation and cost-overruns.
• Engagement beyond engineering is crucial. Public acceptance, regulation, liability, monitoring and governance need equal attention if CCS projects are to succeed.
• Demonstration at scale must be paired with pathways to cost reduction. Without showing scale, and learning how to push down costs, CCS is hard to render economically viable.

Conclusion
“Plenary 1: UKCCSRC & UK CCS – 2005-2015” offered a chance to look back with a clear  view: to understand what foundations were laid, what expectations were realistic, which  decisions paid off, and which ones led to unintended consequences. Returning to these early years is not just nostalgia—it’s a way to understand the constraints, the  breakthroughs and the missteps that inform what is possible now. If UK policy makers,  academia, industry and civil society carry the lessons forward, the next decade might see more fully realized CCS projects—ones that deliver on carbon reduction,  community benefit, and economic sustainability.